I Became Free
by omgimwritingfanfics
Summary: It started off as an obsession, but now it was an addiction. She first saw their faces on a blogging site, and now she was seeing them everywhere she went. She had lost touch with reality and fallen into the world of Free! and discovered what happens when you become too emotionally invested in an anime.
1. Life Has

A/N: Very loosely, I repeat, VERY LOOSELY based on my experiences with Free!

Warning: Some bad language! You have been warned!

* * *

She was wasting her afternoon away on the blogging site known as Tumblr when it happened.

_ 'The thing that gets me most about Rin and Haru is that whenever they meet, they let their guard down completely, unlike their time spent with their other friends. They're so much more open around each other!'_

The caption rested below a gifset of two anime boys, whose faces had been artfully animated to portray shock and recognition. She was immediately drawn to them, agreeing inherently with the small paragraph said. She didn't know it at first, but deep inside her, her mind had confirmed the romantic relationship between the red-haired one with shark-like teeth, and the raven-haired one with eyes so deep and blue she had no clue how the creators had managed to capture it so well.

A couple of minutes later, and thanks to Google and Wikipedia, she was hooked.

The anime was called Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, but she took to just calling it 'Iwatobi.' Finding the episodes online was easy as could be, and by the fourth one she was on the edge of her seat, internally _screaming_ for Rin and Haru to _just kiss already, goddamnit!_ As the credits rolled, she started swearing at KyoAni for being such fucking _teases._

Apparently the anime would be released by an episode per week. Already she felt as if her emotions were being cruelly toyed with. How could she manage when the weeks dragged on so?

She spent the first seven days barely skimming over homework, much more invested in lurking on the Free! or RinHaru tag on Tumblr, but they were updated rarely due to the hype surrounding the anime not having reached its peak. When she had finished checking the tags for at least the ninety-eighth time, she finally gave up and went onto YouTube. The only noteworthy video for her so far was a reaction video by a user named Gigguk, and she watched it so many times that by the time the fifth episode was released, she could quote it word for word.

And then the sixth episode rolled around.

And then the seventh.

Then the eighth.

Dimly she was aware that her grades had dropped. Her school days were simply spent yawning and staring out the window, dreaming of the beautifully animated water that awaited her when she returned home, and would sustain her until 3AM.

Episode 9 had her clawing at the screen, mumbling, "Rin, bby, don't cry, pls don't cry, I'm here for you bby." The words tumbling out of her mouth wouldn't form properly, leaving her gasping almost indistinguishable phrases that had wormed her way into her brain from her times on the internet.

And then on Thursday, it happened.

_ 'So I heard Free! only has 12 episodes! This is terrible, I can't survive without my gay swimming anime boys!'_

Twelve. Episodes.

_ Twelve. Episodes._

"WHAT?" she shrieked, seizing her laptop and preparing to smash it into the wall. Only her mother, who had come running at her shout, saved the device and subsequently confiscated it from her until she agreed to "spend more time with the family. It's obvious you're not studying!"

She couldn't make it through one hour before she leapt up from where she had been twitching on the couch, muttering, "I'm going to bed."

Before any of them could stop her, she was safely nestled in her room once more, this time with her mobile phone in hand. The internet ran slower on it, but at least it was a form of connection with the anime boys she had fallen in love with.

On Friday, she got her laptop back and discovered the Swimming Anime Dating Sim (Very Beta!) and played it through to the end, sighing happily when Tsun blushed at Pimp-kun's suggestive words. It was like it was _canon._

On Saturday, Tumblr led her to 50% Off. Thug Seme Nagisa had her almost crying in laughter, a grin stretching its way from ear to ear. She had been working on her grin. That night she dreamt her teeth had become sharp and rakish, like Rin's.

By the time Episode 11 came knocking on her door, she shipped Rin and Haru with all her heart and most of her soul. She began skipping school, faking so many illnesses her mother called the doctor, who just prescribed 'more sleep.' Fanfictions and fanart were what really gave her energy, the lemony smut making her blush and the fluff making her clutch her chest as her feels imploded. Whenever she saw the MakoHaru ship surface, she scowled.

The Rintori ship was twice as ridiculous, she often muttered to herself. Rin did _not_ belong with a shota-boy. He belonged with _Haru._ Speaking of shota-boys, though, the Reigasa ship was her second favourite. Rei and Nagisa fit together so _goddamn_ perfectly. Her third favourite ship was SeiGou, but Episode 7 had left her slightly confused there, as when Nagisa mentioned Seijuuro to Gou, she had looked away, and not in embarrassment.

No matter. "My ships have sailed, and if anyone tries to sink them so help me I will _flame_ all their stupid shit," she growled.

Not to mention Seijuuro was one of the most attractive anime boys she had seen in her life.

Her limbs had taken on a strange stiff quality, locking her in place on her computer chair. Her neck often made a weird cracking sound when she had to turn her head to talk to whichever family member popped in her room, trying to rouse her from her sitting position.

Wednesday morning came and by gods, she couldn't face it. She couldn't, she couldn't…yet she did.

By the end of it:

"_RINHARU IS CANON!_" she screamed.

Episode 12 was over, her chest was heaving and her pupils were dilated. _Canon. Canon. Canon. They're canon._ The feels had risen in full force within her, making her hands shake like she had Parkinson's. _Did you see the way they fought, did you see the way they cried?_ She couldn't shake the memory of Rin's tears falling on Haru's face, or their shoujo moment under the cherry blossom tree.

She spent the rest of the day—and night—rewatching the episode.

Little did she know the path her life was about to take.

* * *

Oh my God WHAT HAVE I DONE.

I was talking to someone on Tumblr about this, and it kind of took off from there. Oh my God. Not gomen, though.

MakoHaru and Rintori shippers especially, please don't take this seriously! It's not my intention to attack any other ships, I just took my obsession with RinHaru and built upon it so this character becomes a very unpleasant person, lost in the world of Free!... eh eh eh.


	2. No Meaning

It had been a week after the anime known as Free! had ended.

Was it really only a week? She could still envision the last episode as if she had finished watching it five minutes ago. Well, she had, but that wasn't really important.

The days of the year had taken a backseat to the infinity of the Internet. She sat there, hunched over, scrolling aimlessly through her dash, only revived when a picture of her Iwatobi or Samezuka darlings appeared.

But those moments were brief, and she could only look at fanart a few times before it lost its initial, spine-tingling charm. New art was her fix, sending her on an euphoric high as she lost herself in the delicate sketches of Rin and Haru.

She had tried to draw, and tried to write, but all that came out was a jumbled mess that made her feel sick. So she contended with keeping her eyes glued to the pixelated screen.

Without knowing it, she began to waste away.

Clicking, scrolling, clicking, scrolling…Fanfic. Net and AO3 only held so much content, and she was certain she had read all completed RinHaru from beginning to end, and she wanted _more_ and _more_ but updates just weren't coming _fast _enough.

Lately she had taken to listening to the OSTs on repeat, especially 'Feelings and Emotions' which brought her to the brink of tears several times, along with 'Cherry Blossoms' and 'Sense of Defeat'.

The English translations of the Free! doujinshis were only updated every once in a while, and right now the translators were apparently working on a Reigasa doujin, which was just fine by her but it would be so much more _satisfying_ if it was another RinHaru one. The most recent one had confused the heck out of her, no matter how many times she read it.

The sun rose and set. The world turned slowly. Time ticked on.

She barely budged.

There was a small break in her rapture, where her parents tried to tear her out of the chair and the ambulance was called. Nobody could move her though, it was strange. The doctors eventually told her parents it was a phase and best to leave her until it was out of her system.

A phase…it was nothing like a phase. Free! was a lifestyle. _RinHaru was a lifestyle_.

Before she knew it, five months had past and she had forgotten how to communicate with other humans that didn't exist on the virtual world that was her reality.

The only words her family and friends ever heard her speak were "Swimming. Let's…let's go swimming."

* * *

Hmmm.

Bit shorter this time.

If you enjoyed, feel free to drop a favourite or comment c:


	3. Without Them

Uploaded because I have nothing better to do hah.

* * *

Six years had passed. It could have been ten. Possibly more.

Not that it mattered, of course.

KyoAni had released another season of Free! earlier in the years, and when she saw the announcement, she had felt her breath catch and her head spin in pure joy. Too good to be true…but it was true, and for an all too brief time her existence became totally focused on each week's release, the time between taken to pick apart the tiny details in each episode.

This was her fiftieth time watching both seasons of Free! back to back, or was it? Maybe the one hundred and forty-fourth time. She wasn't sure. All the numbers were swirling down the drain of memory along with the water of Haru's baths.

She did know that somehow her short hair now reached roughly mid-thigh and her eyes flat out refused to look at a word that wasn't square. And then that one time, that wonderful time…

She had thought he was next to her, his hand on her shoulder, whispering "Swim with us."

Next to him, tightly holding his hand, stood a raven-haired boy.

Too bad the vision ended quickly as it begun, and she came to with her nose squished up against her computer screen. She wasted no time in writing it down and elaborating upon it in a fifty-paged fanfiction.

Over the years the bottled up feels within her had forced her to try once more with writing fanfictions (although she hadn't gotten any better at art). Once she started writing again, to her joy she found her life had been well-spent indulging in Fanfiction and AO3, for the words poured so easily and fluidly from her fingertips she could envision the world right before her.

Fluff, angst, smut, it all came pouring out of her like a waterfall. Even as the stream of fanfictions slowed as the fandom lost most of its hype, she became a widely recognised author that was _always_ online.

_Swim with us_.

Oh, how she wanted to…

Her fingers and thumbs had begun to hurt more and more, making typing and clicking and scrolling almost agony, but she persevered, so eager to drown herself in Haru's ocean-blue eyes, to wander in the green forest of Makoto's, the intertwined butterflies and penguins of Reigasa, or the passionate, dangerous fire of Rin's gaze.

What is time? She thinks.

Was time even a factor in her life anymore?

Did time even matter?

She had lost time, just as she was losing her life…so she could become free.

Her vision happened again as her room darkened.

She was still sitting on a chair, but it was on the floor of a pool. The light was a glimmering, shifting blue, and her hair floated around her like a mermaid's.

All of them were before her, even Coach Sasabe and Miss Amakata. They were all swimming, laughing and chasing each other, but as she reached out they seemed to float away.

A hand was on her shoulder.

She knew who it was before she looked up.

Rin looked at her, his mouth curved in an uncharacteristically gentle smile. His hair, too, floated about him in a red halo. He held out his hand. "Swim with us."

For the first time in her vision, the other boy with azure eyes spoke to her.

"Come home," Haru said.

She slid her hand into Rin's offered palm and stood up, feeling a strange weightlessness enfold her being as she left her virtual world for the very last time.

I'm coming home.

* * *

omg she dead man


End file.
